Return to Middle-earth
by Sardhrantor
Summary: Sequel to "The Time That is Given Us". Aubrey accidentally tells her new friend, Hope, of her previous adventures, unfortunately at the cost of a good relationship. But things take a turn for the worse (or better, depending on which way you look at it) once they are both sent to Middle-earth, and so begin a journey learning about life, bravery, and friendship.
1. Hope

**Disclaimer: I do not own _The Lord of the Rings_ or anything related to it. Those belong to Tolkien.**

Aubrey Thompson opened her backpack and slid her books into the biggest compartment, then, tossing the blue backpack onto her shoulder, joined the mob of students crowding into the cafeteria for lunch. This was her first day of sixth grade at Redwood Middle School. She was new to the concept of school; before, she had been home schooled. The Thompson family had a tradition that when a child finished fifth grade, she enrolled the next year at Redwood Middle. And Aubrey was the last to do this, for she was the youngest of the three Thompson children.

Food in hand, Aubrey stood looking at each table. She recognized a girl from her math class sitting at one table. Aubrey strolled over to the girl and sat in the empty seat to her right. "Hi, you're in my math class, aren't you?"

The girl looked up and pushed her black hair back from her face. "Oh, yeah!" She smiled.

"I'm Aubrey," she said, putting out her hand.

"Hope," said the girl, shaking Aubrey's proffered hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You too!" Aubrey couldn't help it—her eyes scrolled down to the sketchbook Hope held in her lap, pencil gliding along, drawing a line. But what interested Aubrey was the subject Hope was drawing: "Is that Éowyn, from _The Lord of the Rings_?" Aubrey had to ask.

Hope smiled. "Yes, it is! Are you a fan too?"

"Sure am! Is she your favorite character?"

"No," said Hope. "Frodo's my favorite."

"I think he's cool, too," Aubrey replied, "but my favorite is Éowyn."

"Oh, really? My mum really likes her too."

"Nice," said Aubrey. She looked at her sketch pad again. "So you like drawing?"

"Yes," Hope said, "but I like painting even more. I also sew a lot."

"What do you like to sew?"

"Lots of things. But I do a lot of Middle-earth costumes. I'm a huge fan." Hope began to stack her dishes on her tray. "If you like, you can come to my house this weekend. I'll show you some of my things."

"All right—I'll ask my mom if I can come," said Aubrey, rising from her seat to take her tray away. "See ya."

"Bye!" said Hope.

 **A/N: My first chapter of the new version is out! Woooooo…**

 **Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review! Follow and/or favorite as you see fit. Concrit and praise both very welcome. Thanks again!**


	2. Left in the Cold

**Disclaimer: I do not own _The Lord of the Rings_ or anything related to it. Those belong to Tolkien.**

* * *

As Aubrey learned the following day, she was to come Saturday at four and then join Hope and her family for dinner. Mrs. Thompson dropped Aubrey off at Hope's house ("Have fun," she said as she rode away). Aubrey walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.

Presently the door opened, and Hope appeared. "Come in, come in!" she said. Aubrey stepped inside. Just then a woman appeared, probably in her mid-thirties, with a face that reminded Aubrey of Hope. _Must be her mother,_ Aubrey thought.

"Aubrey, this is my mum," said Hope. "Mum, this is my friend Aubrey. I told you about her, remember?"

"You did," said Hope's mother. Aubrey detected a slight accent, but didn't know what it was. "Nice to meet you, Aubrey." She offered her hand. Aubrey smiled and shook it. "Now you girls run along and have fun."

"We will! Come on, Aubrey," said Hope. "I'll show you my projects." Aubrey followed her friend into a hallway. Hope opened the second door on the left. "This is my room."

Aubrey looked around. The pink walls were covered in drawings and watercolor paintings. Most of the portraits were of LotR characters, and she spotted a painting of a Hobbit hole. In the corner stood an easel.

"Wait till you see my costumes." Hope opened the closet door and pulled out several outfits. "I sewed these myself. Well—Mum helped me with the hard parts, of course." She named them. "I have Éowyn's white dress from _The Two Towers_ , and a hobbit dress, and Arwen's dress from that scene in the movie where she sees her son in a vision and he gives her the look and all that."

"When did you start sewing?"

"I was nine when I started. The hobbit dress doesn't fit me anymore, because I made it when I was that age. I still have it as a keepsake." Hope picked up Éowyn's dress and held it against herself. "This one fits. I finished it this summer."

"Nice," said Aubrey. "You know, I have a Rohirric dress—" Aubrey caught herself and clapped her mouth shut. How was she going to explain to Hope how she got it? Aubrey didn't think she was ready to give the secret to someone outside the family. She hoped Hope hadn't heard.

"You do?" asked Hope. Aubrey inwardly cringed. Hope had heard. "That's nice. Did you buy it from somewhere or did you make it yourself?"

 _I guess it's okay if I tell her. After all, she's my friend now._ "Hope, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure," the other said in an almost-whisper.

"Well, see, I have these two sisters, right? Well, one day we were sitting in our tree house and all of a sudden we all decided we wanted to go to Middle-earth. Then the middle sister pushed against the tree and found out it was hollow. She jumped through and landed in Middle-earth. And we followed her, and found that we were in Rohan, and—"

"You're just kidding, right?" Hope broke in, a smile playing on her face. But when she saw the seriousness on Aubrey's face, the smile disappeared. "Aubrey, really. Please tell me this is just a joke and you're not crazy."

Aubrey wanted to cry. _I should have known Hope wouldn't believe me. Aubrey, what were you thinking?_ But she had already said it, and she couldn't unsay it now. "This is not just a joke, Hope," Aubrey said very sincerely, praying Hope would believe her, "and I am not crazy."

Hope looked at Aubrey for a long time, an incredulous expression on her face. Aubrey clenched her teeth and willed the tears that were welling up in her eyes to not roll down her cheeks. At last, Hope quickly changed the subject, but somehow Aubrey didn't feel as comfortable as before. All the rest of that day Hope was as polite as ever, but in the following days at school, Hope never spoke to Aubrey at all and pretended to not notice her. She didn't even want to sit at the same table as Aubrey. _She must really think I'm crazy now,_ thought Aubrey, _and who wants to talk to a crazy person?_ Aubrey sighed. She only hoped that her now ex-friend hadn't told anyone else her secret.

* * *

 **A/N: How did you like it? Boy, is Aubrey in the cold now! Please leave a review, and don't forget to follow or favorite as you see fit!**

 **Jesus' girl 4ever: Yep! But not yet. Not just yet.**


	3. The Return

**Disclaimer: I do not own** ** _The Lord of the Rings_** **or anything related to it. Those belong to Tolkien.**

* * *

"Hope, I notice you haven't been talking about Aubrey much lately. How is she?"

"Fine, I guess, Mum." Hope looked down.

"That doesn't sound like you mean it," said her mother, who was sitting at the table across from her daughter. They were just finishing dinner, and the house was quiet except for their soft conversation. Hope's dad was still at work; he was working overtime today. Hope's little brother Adrian, five years old, was at his best friend's birthday party.

"Aubrey's just too...weird," Hope blurted.

Her mother arched an eyebrow. "Really? She didn't seem that weird when I met her."

Hope was quiet. Her mother waited patiently.

Finally Hope spoke. "She said something to me, when I showed her things in my room."

"What did she say?"

"She said that she had a Rohirric dress that she had gotten from Middle-earth." Immediately Hope bit her lip. Should she have not told her mother? She remembered then that Aubrey had wanted Hope to keep it a secret. Hope may not have felt like talking to Aubrey anymore, but at the very least, Hope would have liked to honored her former friend's requests.

Hope's mum leaned back. Hope could not make out any emotion or reaction in her mother's stoic face, which always seemed to be naturally expressionless unless she was either very, very happy or quite the opposite. "So—according to her—she actually _went_ to Middle-earth?" said she. "The very same Middle-earth that _The Lord of the Rings_ talks about?"

"Yes, I—I think so, Mum."

"Well," Hope's mum said at last, "I don't think you should stop being friends with her for that." Then she added quietly, so much so that Hope wasn't sure if it had actually been said at all, "There's more to this world than you might think." And it seemed for a moment to Hope that her mother looked strangely thoughtful. But when she looked again, the expression was not there. Hope passed it off as her imagination. What could her mum possibly know about the situation that Hope herself did not know?

* * *

Aubrey walked in through the door and threw her backpack on the couch.

"Aubrey!" Noelle scolded, walking in right behind her. "You know you shouldn't do that. Put it where it goes."

"Oh, all right," said Aubrey. She did as her sister said, then went to help her with the dishes. After a little bit of bickering, they agreed that Noelle would dry the dishes and Aubrey would put them away.

"So," said Noelle. "Have you talked to Hope lately?"

Aubrey sighed and shook her head. "No. She doesn't want to talk to me."

"Oh, because you told her about...going to Middle-earth and all that?" Aubrey had already told Noelle about the incident at Hope's house.

"Yeah. I mean, I don't think she's trying to be mean or anything. She probably thinks I'm crazy and feels uncomfortable talking to me."

"Oh, right." Noelle smiled sadly. "If only she knew. "

Aubrey raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to go back there, if that's what you're hinting at. Then you never know if you'll ever come back home. And I wouldn't exactly want to stay there forever."

"Right, but also, travels to Middle-earth don't come for the asking." Noelle folded the dishtowel and put it in the cabinet. "There now, let's go to the table. I think I see some dirty dishes that we can load into the dishwasher." Noelle went into the dining room, and Aubrey followed. They worked quickly and efficiently, each making her way around the table and adding the dishes into the stack in her hand. They took the plates, glasses, bowls, and utensils to the dishwasher, loaded them in, closed it, and started the cycle.

"There, that's done," said Noelle. "Are there any other chores we need to do? I think I should go set the table for supper. Brie," said Noelle, using her pet name for her sister, "you wanna go do your laundry? That's what Tricia's doing, I think." In the Thompson household, each child did her own laundry, and their mom did the parents' laundry. Aubrey went to her bedroom. As she stooped to take her dirty clothes from the hamper, Aubrey's eye wandered to the closet, and she saw Noelle's and her own clothes from Middle-earth.

She smiled with the memory of Rohan, and Dame Morwen, Éothain, and Freda. It had now been three years since the Thompson girls' singular visit to the home of the horse-lords, but Aubrey still remembered it as if it were yesterday.

Aubrey took her Rohirric outfit down and held it against herself. Oddly enough, it looked big enough to fit her. But, she reasoned, she did remember that it had been just a bit loose on her when she had worn it at the time. It might fit now…

The cloth felt warm and familiar as it slid over Aubrey's head. She fastened the brooches of the overdress at the shoulders, then put on her Rohirric socks and shoes (she still had them), which, of course, were not at all like modern footwear. Dressed in full Rohirric garb, a wave of nostalgia flooded her mind. She didn't know why, but just then she felt compelled to look at the door, which was pulled to. There was something off about that door, but she could not place it.

Aubrey took a step toward the door, then stopped. She saw now what was off about the door: a light brighter than the hall light had ever been glimmered from behind the door and showed around the edges of the door. Filled with wonder, she stretched out her hand and grasped the doorknob, pulling it fully open.

The bright light of day flooded the bedroom where Aubrey stood. But what awed her even more was what was beyond the doorway—brown grass, boulders here and there, and a beautiful clear blue sky. A cool breeze floated in from the other world and blew Aubrey's hair back.

"Rohan," Aubrey breathed.

* * *

 **A/N: Umm...yeah, so here she is, on the doorstep of a big adventure (literally!). How'd you like the chapter? Please review, and thank you to those who have already done that!**

 **Jesus' girl 4ever: Yeah, poor Aubrey. Hopefully (heh heh...get it?** ** _hope_** **fully) they'll make up to each other soon. It's not fun when your friend puts you in the enemy/stranger zone.**


	4. Suspicion

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

* * *

Hope tapped her pencil thoughtfully on the paper, a half-finished drawing of a waterfall and surrounding landscape upon it. _Boy, a_ _m I tired,_ Hope thought. Her eyelids were drooping, even though it was only two in the afternoon. She hadn't got much sleep the night before, because she had stayed up late working on a sewing project. She silently reminded herself never to try that again.

Hope laid her pencil on the desk in her room and rested her head on her folded arms. She closed her eyes and let the rest of the world slowly fade away as she fell asleep.

* * *

The cooling breeze passed by and the air stilled. Aubrey walked a little distance and took the time to have a look around. She did not see her room, but she was not surprised. In fact, she hardly thought about that fact at all, other than in passing.

The place seemed so peaceful. Was this the Fourth Age? It would have been, if three years in current time were the same as three years in Middle-earth time. But Aubrey knew that she might have gone any amount forward or back in time. So this could be when Sauron was still "thumpin' and boomin'", as Noelle loved to say of Sauron and Morgoth. And for that matter...Morgoth might have been thumping and booming, too. That thought sent a shudder down Aubrey's spine.

"Well," she said aloud, "I won't find out until I do some more exploring, will I?" But somehow she didn't feel in the mood for doing anything... _big_ right then. So Aubrey seated herself on the grass and ran her hand through her hair. This gave her time to think. Why was she back in Middle-earth? She didn't seem to remember "wishing" herself here this time. In fact, other than the short exchange with her sister while washing dishes, the concept of being taken to Middle-earth had no place in her mind at all.

Perhaps, this time, she was _needed_ here. But how? As far as Aubrey knew, the cliché of a girl falling into Middle-earth and finding she is just what the people there are missing was completely in the realm of so-called Mary-Sues and insane fangirls. And she, Aubrey was sure, was neither.

Aubrey took a deep breath and sighed it out through her nose. She stood slowly and brushed herself off. At any rate, there was no point in staying in one spot, as there was close to zero likelihood of her being found by anyone, much less someone _friendly._

"For starters, I'll take a look around," Aubrey said to herself, "just to see if there's somewhere interesting to go." She didn't have a spyglass, but she had her eyes. Tricia had gotten her first pair of glasses last week after their mom discovered Tricia couldn't read road signs. Aubrey's eyes were not about to follow suit.

Hand shielding her eyes, Aubrey scanned the horizon once, then twice. There was nothing of interest. _It's almost like I'm in the middle of a desert, but with grass instead of sand, plus some rocks and boulders and things here and there._ Too many "and's", Aubrey knew, but if it was inside her head, who really gave a rip? She herself had never been a grammar Nazi.

Aubrey groaned. What on earth was she supposed to _do?_ Why was she even here? The chilling fear that she was here by accident crept over her.

"Everything happens for a reason," her mother always said. Aubrey closed her eyes. How she missed her mother. But her mom was right, she knew. God certainly always knew what He was doing, and Aubrey would just have to trust Him.

* * *

Hope came to, but her eyes remained closed. She did not want to wake up just yet.

Until she felt a breeze.

Hope was absolutely positive her window was shut—and that she hadn't fallen asleep, prone on grass.

 _Wait, what? Grass?_ Hope's eyes snapped open, sleepy as she was, and she sat up. "Where am I?" she asked the air. No one, as far as she could tell, was around. And what was this place?

Hope began to panic. Maybe someone had smashed her window while she was asleep, chloroformed her, and dragged her here. But as soon as the idea came about, she questioned it. Why would... _whoever-it-was_ do this? She didn't see much point in being dropped off in this wide grassland. If they really meant ill for her, she would likely be locked up someplace nasty. But the fact of the matter was that she wasn't. She was _here,_ and she didn't know where, exactly, _here_ was.

"Where am I?" asked Hope, again. This placed seemed oddly familiar. Hope racked her brain for anything that was even remotely similar to this place. New Zealand…?

Hope gasped. That was it! Some prankster, knowing she was a fan of _The Lord of the Rings_ and all things Tolkien, flooded her mouth and nose with cotton soaked in chloroform, then dropped her off here to make her seriously think she was in Rohan. But the question remained. Who?

A dark thought came into her mind. _Aubrey._

Hope shook her head and laughed grimly. She must not have been getting enough sleep. What an outlandish idea! Aubrey wasn't powerful enough to take her here. And she would never have dreamed of Aubrey sneaking into her room and drugging her. Aubrey may be crazy, but Hope did not deem her dark-hearted enough to abduct her. It would have sounded like something out of a crack-fic detective tale.

But the fact that this happened so relatively soon after the fallout with Aubrey, over a _trip to Middle-earth,_ of all things, seemed too intentional to be coincidence. The suspicion came into her mind again. Somehow, some way, her former friend was involved in this, maliciously or otherwise. And Hope vowed within herself that if she ever got home, she would not let Aubrey get away with this.

* * *

 **A/N: Mary-Sues stink. Trust me, I try hard to not let my characters become Mary-Sues. Sometimes, they do. If so, my apologies. I'll go back and fix it. And some people's definition of a Mary-Sue is _any_ girl who falls into a fandom world. Just so you know, I don't agree with that, because some of the best stories are ones that involve just that. (Narnia, anyone?) I mean, as long as she's not good at literally everything (I'm looking at you, Rey Skywalker!), and isn't falling in love with a main character just so the writer can realize her fantasies, and doesn't have special powers or staggering beauty or nothin', then yeah. NotAMarySue.**

 **Anyway, please review! Thanks for reading!**

 **Jesus' girl 4ever: Apparently she did! :) And she's just as confused as Aubrey, if not more.**


	5. Meeting Up with Hope

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

Hope huffed and sat down on the ground, idly twisting a brunette lock of hair around her finger. Looking for shelter was the priority, she knew. In a place like this, there didn't seem to be any shelter at all. This she had realized, of course, when she first came here. There wasn't anything she could do about it.

"So here I am, stuck in New Zealand somewhere," Hope said aloud, though she knew no one could hear her. "What a lame, lame, lame way to die. Thanks a lot, Aubrey. Some friend you are." Her more sensible side knew that it was utterly silly to think Aubrey had done it. Maybe it was a coincidence after all. _Or maybe I'm just dreaming, and this is a really lucid dream._ That seemed impossible, though. She knew what dreams felt like; and even though she knew that sometimes dreams felt like real life, she also knew what real life felt like, and this was it for sure.

"Hope Gweneth Baines," she said to herself, "you've got yourself in a fine mess."

* * *

A soft breezed rustled Aubrey's hair. She opened her eyes a crack.

The sun was just disappearing behind the horizon.

Aubrey drew in some air and instinctively checked her left arm, only to find that the teller of time that usually took its place there was absent. She should not have been surprised; she ought to have remembered that before donning her Rohirric garb, she had removed her wrist watch and set it on the dresser. Not everyone was blessed with the flawless memory abilities of some, though.

Sunset to Aubrey, who was a veteran of many summers of Thompson family fortnight-long survival camping trips, meant only one thing in the wild: _danger._ To which, naturally, Aubrey was very vulnerable.

Aubrey swallowed several times, attempting to keep herself calm and out of panic mode. _Panicking clouds one's judgment,_ she told herself. _Focus, Aubrey. What to do?_

In the dying light, Aubrey could only barely see a few boulders that might serve as temporary shelters from the elements. She found one nearby that she thought would do and curled up under its shadow. Her heel, in the process of curling up, went back a little and ran into something that was definitely not rock. Or was it some _one?_

The person in question awoke and gave a sharp gasp. Aubrey squealed in fright and jumped up.

"Who...who are you?"

For a moment there was silence. Aubrey did not withdraw her query, and the other did not answer it.

Finally the person spoke up, but Aubrey could not understand a word she said.

 _Hello, Aubrey. It seems you have found me at last._ This Hope thought, and this she spoke aloud, not caring that Aubrey couldn't understand a word of it. Of course Aubrey didn't know Welsh. Why would she? The language was not offered at school, and Aubrey would have no reason to learn it on her own: Hope didn't think Aubrey knew she was mostly Welsh.

"Pardon me?"

Hope smirked and continued. _"_ _Beth wyt ti'n mynd i wneud?_ _"_

"Uhh... _pedi_ _ch i lam edhellen?"_

"Pardon me?" she asked.

"Ha," said Aubrey dryly. "I know who you are by now."

 _Must've been the voice that gave it away,_ thought Hope, but she said, this time in English, "You wanna explain to me why I'm here?" She crossed her arms, even though Aubrey couldn't see her do it in the dark.

Aubrey scoffed. "You really think I know? I'm as much in the dark as you are." She paused. "I didn't mean for that to be a pun, you know."

"I didn't take it as one," Hope replied. _"_ _Nos da."_

Aubrey huffed in frustration. "I don't know what that means, Hope! But good night, all the same."

The girls grew quiet again. Aubrey curled up where she had been before. Hope delayed a bit, but in the end, she stretched herself out on the grass next to Aubrey.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the delayed update. The struggle got real, and I couldn't work on this story as much. Anyway, as always, please review, and follow or favorite as you see fit!**

 **Jesus' girl 4ever: Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad to hear that they're not. For a moment I was a little unsure.**

 **WELSH TRANSLATIONS**  
 _ **Beth wyt ti'n mynd i wneud?**_ **What are you going to do?**  
 _ **Nos da**_ **= Good night**

 **SINDARIN TRANSLATIONS**  
 _ **Pedich i lam edhellen?**_ **= Do you speak Elvish?**


	6. Abandoned

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

Hope opened her eyes. She had never spent a night on hard ground before, and she regretted it now, what with her entire body aching something awful. The sky was dark still, and she had little clue what time it was. The stars might have given her a bit of an idea, but she hadn't thought to get a good look at them before going to sleep. In addition, if this was New Zealand, then they were in the Southern Hemisphere. Hope, for one, was not even familiar with _northe_ _rn_ constellations, let alone southern ones.

Of course, by this time Hope had all but dismissed the idea of her being in New Zealand. That idea seemed a little too..."out there". Aubrey may have had mischievous leanings, but Hope doubted that Aubrey Thompson would have the means or the inclination to take herself and Hope to New Zealand, just to prove a point.

Hope spared a glance at Aubrey. The blonde girl was sleeping still, and showed no sign of waking any time soon. Hope chewed her lip, thinking hard.

At last she made up her mind. She could survive without Aubrey. Hope turned away from the sleeping girl and walked purposefully away.

* * *

The first thing that came to Aubrey's mind was how hard the ground was on which she had been sleeping—and how cold, too. There was, however, a spot of warmth on her back that she knew resulted from the morning sunshine. She opened her eyes and sat up. The sun had already risen, and the ruddiness of dawn was quickly disappearing.

Trying to stretch out the crick in her back, Aubrey glanced around and immediately realized that Hope was absent.

Her first thought was that Hope had perhaps gone out to have a look around, but a thorough sweep of the horizon from atop a small boulder brought an end to that idea. If Hope had indeed wanted to scout out the area, she wouldn't have gone that far away from Aubrey. But the alternative—desertion—was equally incredible. Hope had significantly less knowledge of wilderness survival than did Aubrey, and abandoning the only known human in the vicinity was simply ridiculous. But then, if one was not accustomed to the wilderness, one also might not realize the foolishness of a plan such as that. Perhaps it was plausible after all.

With this knowledge, Aubrey's heart sank. She had started out without Hope, of course, but now that Hope had come and left, the loss of a companion was much greater than the original absence of one. "Why, Hope?" Aubrey asked aloud. "Why'd you walk away?" _Great. Now I'm back to square one._

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this chapter was kind of short. From now on this story is on indefinite hiatus. I feel like it sort of detracts from the whole point of its prequel, even though the characters didn't exactly wish themselves into another world in this one. Thanks for reading!**

 **Jesus' girl 4ever: Okay...I know I haven't talked about this in the story yet, but they're in Rohan.**

 **Cowboy-4-Christ: Thanks!**


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